AN OFFICIAL of the University of Science and Technology (USTP) said the university’s board of regents (BOR) is the only body who has the right to decide whether or not it will pay the contractor of the unfinished 8-storey building, and not the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) call.
Lawyer Jonathan Oche USTP’s vice president for administration and legal affairs was reacting to a DPWH letter which supposedly recommended that the USTP should pay P99 million to the contractor and insisted that Wing-An’s work accomplishment is at P48.86 percent.
The report was signed by Sabeniano Caliao Jr., Chair of the Tripartite Review Committee of the DPWH-Northern Mindanao and was sent to Dr. Ronald Adamat, chairperson of the USTP Board of Regents (BoR) last July 19.
“It’s not for the DPWH to order the university to pay, because DPWH is just a part of the committee. Ang board nag order ug review, so ang committee ang magreport (The board ordered the review so the committee will report,” Oche said.
To clear the cloud of doubt that shrouds the P200 million building, Oche said the BOR has created a committee tasked to review the actual accomplishment of the unfinished 8-storey building before it will make any payments to the contractor.
Oche said the committee was created in April, but failed to meet the deadline of their evaluation that was set last May.
Oche however pointed out that the board extended the deadline, considering the voluminous documents it is reviewing. The committee is set to present their evaluation this September during the board meeting.
The committee chairman is from the DPWH, while the members include a representative from USTP, and the other, a representative from the contractor.
“Ang board of regents ang mag-decide kung bayaran nila (The board of regents will decide if the university will pay), but the general thought is bayaran (we will pay) of course kung naay ma establish na claim (if we can establish the claim),” he said.
“They (the committee) are more or less finished their evaluation and they are about to prepare the report, we are expecting the report for the board meeting this September,” he said.
The university had earlier claimed that the contractor Wing-An Construction and Development Corp. only finished 39.59 percent of the building project, but Wing-An said it has a rightful claim of 60.55 percent work accomplishment.
“The contractor has claimed more than what we have verified, so that is already under the review, it’s up to the board if it will approve the report, that will be the decision of the board. Ang among gibayaran sa ilaha based sa ilang accomplishment nga na verify which is almost 40percent (We paid them based on their work accomplishment which is almost 40 percent), but ilang claim (their claim) is 60 percent, so the difference of about 20 percent basically is the one under review,” Oche said.